Nashville, Tennessee (AP) – President Donald Trump He said Friday Send the National Guard His latest tests are being conducted to address Memphis crime concerns with support from the mayor and the governor of Tennessee. Presidential forces By using military force in American cities.
Speaking about Fox News, Trump said “the mayor is happy” and “the governor is happy” about the development. The city is “deeply bothered,” he said, “We’re going to fix it like Washington,” he sent out the National Guard, surged federal law enforcement.
Memphis is a majority black city and the Democratic mayor was expected to hold a press conference Friday afternoon.
Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said he plans to confirm the development is coming and explain the details of the mission to speak with the president on Friday. He said that together with the FBI, state highway patrols, city police and other law enforcement agencies are still working out the best role for the National Guard.
“We are grateful for the President’s unwavering support and his commitment to providing all the resources necessary to serve Memphian,” Lee said in a statement. “Memphis is on the path to greatness, and we are not going to prevent them from hindering them.”
The governor’s acceptance of Trump’s use of the military stood in sharp contrast to Democratic governors in states like California and Illinois. The president also suggested that he could send his troops to New Orleans, another majority city led by the Republican-leaning Democrats.
AP Audio: Trump says he will send National Guard to Memphis to intensify military use in US cities
President Trump says he is looking at western Tennessee for the next anti-crime development. Reported by Jennifer King of the Associated Press.
Crime is declining, but the military is coming
Trump said Friday that Union Pacific CEO Jim Bena, who regularly visited the city when he worked for the FedEx board, had decided to send his troops to Memphis after urged him to deal with crimes in the city earlier this week.
The president’s announcement comes days after Memphis police reported a decline in the first eight months of 2025 across all major crime categories compared to the same period in the past. Overall crime hit its lowest level in 25 years, while murder hit its highest level in six years, police said.
Trump has since deployed the National Guard in Los Angeles and Washington, DC. He openly meditated on sending the army. Chicago and Portland, Oregon -Even though data shows the most violent crimes in their locations and in the nation It has declined in recent years.
Gun violence and famous killings in Memphis
Despite the overall decline, Memphis has been dealing with the issue of stubborn gun violence for years. In 2023, the city recorded more than 390 murders.
Memphis has also seen several famous killings in recent years. Young Dolph, the rapper and owner of the independent music label, was fatally shot in a cookie shop in November 2021.
In September 2022, school teacher Eliza Fletcher was invited to her on an early morning run, and her body was later found near a vacant double layer. A few days later, a man drove around town and went into a daily shooting rampage, Citywide Shelter Orders. Three people were killed and three others were injured.
Some Republicans are asking the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to audit Memphis Police Department’s crime reports.
Tennessee officials appear to be split
Republican state Sen. Brent Taylor, who supports the deployment of Memphis forces, said Friday that the National Guard could provide “administrative and logistics support” to law enforcement, allowing local officials to focus on police.
The governor said Thursday that the security deployment will accelerate the momentum of the ongoing FBI operations in Memphis, along with state and local law enforcement agencies that have “already arrested hundreds of the most violent criminals.”
Steve Mulroy, district attorney for Shelby County, including Memphis, said the governor wanted the Trump administration to inform the Trump administration that a better strategy would send more FBI and other federal law enforcement agents.
“The risks of these well-known short-term military deployments seem to be performing and have no lasting impact,” Democrat Mulroy said Friday.
On Thursday, Memphis Mayor Paul Young said he is “committed to working to strengthen our community and build progress.” He said the city needs more funds to intervene and prevent crime, and it needs help to strengthen investigations by more patrol officers and police departments.
Legal details
On Friday, city and state officials asked if they had requested the National Guard to be deployed — or officially signed off to it — the White House didn’t respond. It also did not provide a possible timeline or state whether federal law enforcement would surge in relation to the deployment of security guards in Memphis.
Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s national security project, said at a press conference Friday that she could not speak directly to the legality of sending National Guard to Memphis because she doesn’t know whether the military will be deployed under state or federal authorities and what legal justification will be.
“There is no practical emergency in justifying the military to carry out any kind of policing function,” she said.
She used the military to enforce civil law, saying, “leave the hands of those who are not trained to support our fourth and fifth amendments rights – search, seizures, and the protection of appropriate processes – and that can cool our first right to amendments.”
Illinois governor celebrates Trump’s focus on the south
Trump said Friday that he “liked going to Chicago.” There, local politicians resisted his plans vigorously, suggesting that the city was “professional agitators” and “hostile.”
“It’s unsettling that the president is plagued by sending troops to the US streets. Using people wearing uniforms as political props is not humiliated,” said Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, presidential candidate for 2028.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondy accused state leaders of uncooperativeness this week. But even without the National Guard, Chicago residents We look forward to enforcement of more federal immigrants.
Trump’s broader national security strategy
Play first Deployed troops in Los Angeles In early June, by protecting federal property by placing the California State Guard under federal jurisdiction known as Title 10 over objections from Democratic government Gavin Newsom; Protest against immigrant attacks. Security guards later helped protect officers during the immigrant arrest.
Alongside 4,000 security guards, 700 active Marines were also sent out. California sued About intervention.
In Washington, DC, where the president directly orders the National Guard, Trump uses the military for everything from Armed Patrol Destroy cleanup without legal issues.
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Associated Press authors Adrian Sainz and Travis Lorler of Nashville, Josh Funk of Omaha, Nebraska, Will Weissart of Washington, and Katie Hoodie of Chicago contributed to the report.
